England’s Harry Brook was crowned as the new No. 1 batter in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings, updated on December 11. Brook, 25, replaced his teammate Joe Root at the top of the batting order, becoming the numero uno in men’s Test batting for the first time in his career.
Harry Brook also emulated Sachin Tendulkar with 898 rating points — the 34th-highest rating of all time for Test batters. The young batting star is just a point ahead of Joe Root after the first two Tests of their three-match series in New Zealand.
Joe Root, who has been at the top of the rankings nine times in his career, relinquished the top spot for the first time since he overtook Kane Williamson in July 2024.
Also Read: Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma drop out of top 20
Harry Brook has been rewarded for his consistent performances in Test cricket. The young batter has scored 2280 runs in 23 Tests at a staggering average of 61.62 and eight hundreds.
Brook has hit 1099 runs, including four hundreds, in 11 Tests in 2024. In the ongoing series in New Zealand, Brook began with 171 in Christchurch and then carried the form to Wellington, scoring 123 and 55. Root, on the other hand, has a hundred from four innings in the series in New Zealand.
The two batters will be battling for the year-end No. 1 spot when England take on New Zealand in the third and final Test of the series in Hamilton on December 14.
Australia star Travis Head (up six spots to fifth) and South Africa captain Temba Bavuma (up three places to seventh) make ground inside the top 10 for Test batters following strong contributions with the bat for their respective countries, while former No.1 ranked batter Marnus Labuschagne improves three places to move to 13th.
Head tore into the Indian bowling attack in Australia’s 10-wicket win in the Adelaide Test. He hit 140 from just 141 balls, taking the game away from the Indians in the first innings.
ICC TEST RANKINGS – TOP 10 AS OF DECEMBER 12
Meanwhile, Indian batting stars saw a dip in their rankings after the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India lost to Australia by 10 wickets in the pink-ball Test, days after they won the series opener in Perth.
Captain Rohit Sharma slipped out of the top 30, dropping five spots following his twin failures in the pink-ball Test. Virat Kohli dropped six places to No. 20 while Rishabh Pant dropped three spots to No. 9. Yashasvi Jaiswal is the only Indian in the top 5 as the left-hander retained his No. 4 spot in the latest batting charts.
